


ad'ika

by etislem_18



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben is a daddy in a lot of ways, Bendemption, F/M, Fatherhood, Happy Ending, Mentions of Difficult Pregnancy, Pregnancy, Reylo babies, Upset baby, canonverse, labor, scared father
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:35:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26722999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etislem_18/pseuds/etislem_18
Summary: “The galaxy is overwhelming, my son, but that doesn’t make it a bad place,” Ben murmured. The baby just squalled harder.Ben tilted his head against the back of his chair and slowly rocked. Ela’s sobs didn’t abate, though he nuzzled into Ben’s chest harder, as though seeking comfort and protection from some invisible enemy. Again, Ben could relate. He closed his eyes, rubbed Ela’s back, and kept rocking.“Ad’ika,” Ben rumbled after a few moments, “your mother is trying to sleep, and so should you.”The baby stilled, tilting his head back as though to look at Ben questioningly. Ben lifted his head, smiled, and traced a tear that had tracked down Ela’s face.“Hello, little one,” Ben murmured, looking at his son in wonder. “Do you like being called ad’ika?”Ela hiccupped his approval....Or: Ben gets to hold his son
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 12
Kudos: 174
Collections: Ijustfellintothissendhelp





	ad'ika

**Author's Note:**

> This is shamelessly inspired by diasterisms' "landscape with a blur of conquerors" (aka: the ultimate Reylo fic - if you haven't read it, you should!). Ever since reading it and her other works, I am obsessed with the idea of Ben using Mando'a pet names for Rey and their children. I also love the idea of Ben using an Old Corellian word to name their first child in remembrance of Han. Seriously - diasterisms has the best ideas.

Ben was bleary-eyed, more exhausted than he’d ever been. He was so tired that his bones ached, his head hurt, his eyes burned.

Rey, he knew, was worse. She slept next to him, curled into a ball as she always did. Old habits die hard – he knew that better than anyone – so when she wasn’t buried against his chest during the night, she coiled up tightly on her side, her body not yet adjusted to having a safe place to sleep, despite the years that had passed since she had scavenged Jakku, since the war.

A small cry pierced the haze of Ben’s mind, and he was reminded of why he was awake, not sleeping like his body was screaming for.

_Right then. Rey needs rest more than I do._ She slept so lightly that if she hadn’t woken, there was a reason.

He swung his legs off the side of the bed and swiped at his eyes, pushing his hair back away from his face as he ambled to the small crib in the corner of the small bedroom of the small cabin they’d built on a rugged, forested planet in the Outer Rim, far from civilization. It was a place to heal, to rebuild. To grow.

Their child, so new and so tiny, was just as feral as his mother. He’d come into the world wailing, shaking his small fist at the sky and the meddroid alike as Ben openly wept into Rey’s hair while she smiled tiredly. Her pregnancy had been hard; her labor had been harder. Few things had scared Ben more than seeing Rey, his resilient and strong wife, be confined to bed after she’d passed out a few weeks before the baby was due. She’d struggled to keep food down the whole nine months, and her golden skin had paled considerably as she neared her term.

“What a waste of food,” she'd muttered into the vac tube after a particularly rough morning. Ben had barked an alarmed laugh as he held her hair back, but couldn’t stop the swell of fear that had been rising since she’d emerged from the ‘fresher on a chilly morning a few months ago, face glowing with the news of the life growing inside of her. 

When the 2-1B series medical droid, a gift from _Commander_ Dameron and _General_ Finn, placed the boy in Ben’s arms though, the galaxy shifted on its axis. Ben couldn’t speak, couldn’t think – he was wholly overwhelmed by the small bundle in his arms. 

Rey, of course, summed it up in two words. “Worth it,” she muttered through her own tears as she reached a trembling hand to trace over the baby’s still purple cheek. As Ben had handed him to her, she’d put the baby to her breast, and then promptly fell asleep, exhausted from the two days of labor. Ben had gathered both of them in his arms, silently thanking every god he could think of, in every language he knew, that his wife was safe and his child was here.

Now, three weeks later, Ben reached the crib and carefully, reverently scooped his son into his arms. “’S’okay, Ela. I’m here,” he murmured against the baby’s cheek before tucking him against his broad, bare chest. Ben padded out of the room, silently closing the door behind him before dropping into the wooden rocking chair Chewbacca had gifted them when he’d heard the news.

Ben had quietly and nervously suggested the name only a few weeks before the baby was born. “Ela, from _elacheho_.” Rey’s hand had come to his shoulder as she looked at him, puzzled. “It’s Old Corellian,” he’d murmured, not meeting her eyes, “for redemption.”

He remembered very clearly the look on her face – a look of understanding, of peace, of sorrow. But then she smiled at him, pressed her face into his chest, and nodded. She’d also graciously ignored the tears that had dripped from his nose to her hair as he’d wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

Ela seemed to like skin-to-skin contact, and usually settled when he was held against his father’s heart or his mother’s breast. Not that Ben could blame him – he liked being held against Rey’s breast, too. Today, however, Ela was apparently determined to be miserable. He screamed and squirmed, doing his damnedest to break free from his father’s hands. Ben’s lips quirked into a small smile as he readjusted his hold. He could relate to the baby’s attitude. He knew what it was like to feel things he couldn’t explain or understand.

“The galaxy is overwhelming, my son, but that doesn’t make it a bad place,” Ben murmured. The baby just squalled harder.

Ben tilted his head against the back of his chair and slowly rocked. Ela’s sobs didn’t abate, though he nuzzled into Ben’s chest harder, as if seeking comfort and protection from some invisible enemy. Again, Ben could relate. He closed his eyes, rubbed Ela’s back, and kept rocking.

“ _Ad’ika,"_ Ben rumbled after a few moments, “your mother is trying to sleep, and so should you.”

The baby stilled, tilting his head back as though to look at Ben questioningly. Ben lifted his head, smiled, and traced a tear that had tracked down Ela’s face.

“Hello, little one,” Ben murmured, looking at his son in wonder. “Do you like being called _ad’ika_?”

Ela hiccupped his approval.

“I see that your mother’s love of Mando’a pet names runs in the family, then.” Ben’s head dropped back to the rocker with an echoey _thump._ “She likes when I call her _cyar’ika.”_ His hand came up to cradle Ela’s head – _stars, he’s so small,_ Ben thought. He could practically cup the baby’s body in one hand.

“Roughly translated, _ad’ika_ means kid, or son. Or daughter, in some cases. In this application, however, I’m choosing to apply it to mean ‘darling son,’ because you are precious to me,” Ben said, his mild voice taking on an academic tone. In another life, he would have been a scholar. Sometimes he cursed his size, his temper. Had he been born a few centuries earlier, had things been a little different, he would have worked in the great libraries, cultivating and sharing millennia of knowledge. He wouldn’t have been a warrior, reaping destruction and pain. He wouldn't have lost his way so badly. 

But then, he supposed, he wouldn’t have Rey. He wouldn’t have Ela. And, of course, his size isn’t all bad. Rey certainly seemed to appreciate his, well, _size._ She likes when he picks her up and fucks her into the mattress. Ben smirked.

  
Ela sniffled against his chest, though, and he was drawn back to the present. He continued murmuring in soothing tones, trying to coax the baby back to sleep so that he could, in turn, sink into the mattress next to Rey.

“Of all the languages I know, Mando’a is my favorite. I don’t know why,” Ben said. “There’s just something about it. Maybe,” he mused, “it’s because it’s so expressive and easy to learn.” Ben looked down at Ela, who was looking up at him with dark brown eyes. Everything about the child, from his eyes to the shock of black hair that graced his head, from the size of his ears to the shape of his fingers, was a near carbon copy of Ben, though he dearly hoped Ela inherited Rey’s cute-as-a-button nose. 

“Maybe Mando’a will be the first language I teach you,” whispered Ben as he ran a large, long finger over Ela’s cheek, smiling at his drooping eyelids, clearly growing heavy from his father’s deep voice, warm chest, and gentle caresses. “Your mother speaks quite a few languages, too, though, and knowing her, she’ll make teaching you a competition.” Ben snorted, and Ela let out a gurgle of displeasure at having his dozing interrupted.

Ben’s finger dropped to Ela’s mouth, whose lips promptly wrapped around its tip as he suckled, finally soothing himself to sleep. Ela did this often, whether on his parents’ fingers or his own, and every time, Ben’s heart clenched.

“I know now that my father loved me,” Ben’s throat bobbed as emotion welled in his chest. His jaw worked as he willed his voice not to crack on his next words. “But you will never have to wonder if I love you,” he vowed.

Ela must have believed him, as he was currently sound asleep, curled against Ben’s chest. Ben took a few more deep breaths before smoothly standing and moving back into the bedroom. With any luck, he could wrap himself around Rey and get a few more hours of sleep himself.

As he gently laid Ela down in the crib, Ben watched as the planet’s sun started to peek through above the mountains in the distance, spilling watery light through the gauzy curtains at the window. He looked over his shoulder to see it bathing Rey in warmth, lighting the freckles on her face and bringing out the golden strands in her rich chestnut hair. Not for the first time, Ben felt so light that his body threatened to float away. He looked back to his son and whispered, "Sleep tight, _ad'ika."_

He backed away from the crib and slowly lowered himself to the bed, shifting his body to curl around his still sleeping wife. His arms circled her; he relaxed into the pillows and his eyes drifted closed. 

“He knows, my love,” Rey mumbled from underneath his arms. “I could feel you talking to him. He knows.”

Ben just pressed a kiss to her forehead and smiled as sleep claimed him.

**Author's Note:**

> references:
> 
> [landscape with a blur of conquerors](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11442951/chapters/25645101)
> 
> [Mando'a language](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mando%27a/Legends)
> 
> [Old Corellian language](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Olys_Corellisi)


End file.
